‘We might die because you won’t wear a mask’: A plea to health-care workers

Measles in Texas, bird flu in Louisiana, tuberculosis in Kansas and COVID everywhere. Public health has been dying a slow death for years; we can’t count on it anymore. What we can count on is a mask.

Yes, it’s time to mask again. I know it’s not what people want to hear, but viruses don’t care about what we want.

It’s been four years since most COVID mask mandates ended, and yet people are still so angry that they were “forced” to mask that they’ve vilified this effective public health tool and turned it into a political symbol.

They’ve assigned an identity to people who mask. They see them as liberal woke “sheep.” They think they’re weak and frail. They’re wrong.

Maskers are none of those things. They’re simply people who understand the science. They are trying to do whatever they can to safeguard their health and the health of those around them in this “you do you” era of viruses gone wild.

Before the pandemic, people were not outraged at the sight of someone wearing a mask. They may have thought it was odd but there was no vitriol. It was a non-event.

Then COVID hit and we were told we needed to mask up to stop transmission. Respirators were saved for health-care workers (which made sense at the time), and people were encouraged to wear cloth or surgical masks. But as mask mandates were adopted and then abandoned, masking became increasingly vilified to the point that many vulnerable patients still face immense social pressure not to mask themselves – and are even afraid to admit that we would like our health-care workers to mask. As patients, we’re worried about being judged as anxious, difficult or non-compliant. We’re concerned we may face a reduction in our care.

We don’t trust that medical staff will stay home when sick or that hospitals have adequately improved ventilation or sanitized spaces. We can’t trust that hospital staff will mask, and we certainly can’t trust that hospitals will provide adequate forms of protection.

There are some maskers like me who are well-versed in the science of masking. We wear well-fitted N99s or N95s. But health-care workers who refuse to mask and relaxed masking policies in health-care settings are not only failing those of us doing the best we can to protect ourselves, they also are hurting those less aware of the risks.

A family friend recently was in the hospital for cancer screening. They are not COVID-cautious nor are they a COVID-minimizer. However, they stopped masking as soon as mandates were dropped and repeatedly told me they were “sick of hearing about COVID.”

Then they got COVID three times. The last infection took their sense of taste and smell. They began getting colds and flus more often. In their own words, they were “sick of being sick.”

When they arrived at hospital for a cancer-screening appointment, they were so fed up with being sick that when they saw the surgical masks at the entrance, they happily put one on.

The staff treating them were maskless. My friend was told more than once they could remove their mask if they wanted but refused and kept it on.

Afterwards, my friend messaged to tell me that they were masked the entire time and “good thing because so many people were coughing and wheezing and almost no one else was masked.”

Despite having previously given up masking, this person decided it was worthwhile to stand up to health-care workers and be the lone masker in the hospital.

Unfortunately, public health has utterly failed us. My friend naturally assumed the surgical masks provided would be “good enough” – a few days later, they got COVID.

My friend naturally assumed the surgical masks provided would be “good enough” – a few days later, they got COVID.

Rather than being upset that their health-care workers let them down by not masking themselves, or that an insufficient type of mask was provided, my friend concluded that “masks don’t work” and vowed never to wear them again.

Unfortunately, it’s a reasonable conclusion to make. Research shows that masking does work when the right types are used, but a surgical mask does not offer sufficient protection when no one else is masking.

Public health, governments and hospitals have been unwilling to communicate this important message. Everyone is so focused on going “back to normal” that they’re ignoring basic science, and people are losing their health and, often, their lives.

Public health should be spreading the message that, particularly if no one else is masking, you need to use a well-fitted respirator, like an N95 or N99, to reduce your risk of infection.

Health-care workers should be doing the same. They should model the behaviour necessary to curb the spread of COVID by wearing respirators at all times and encouraging patients to do the same. They should stop telling patients it’s OK to remove their mask.

My family friend was someone who was reachable. Their frustration over being sick so often meant they were open to stepping up their personal protection and mitigations.

The health-care system failed them, and now it’s unlikely they will ever be amenable to changing again.

I know there are many people who don’t want to hear this, but the world as we knew it in 2019 is gone. The rush “back to normal” was done for the sake of the economy, not because it is now truly safe or the threat has passed.

The longer people remain in denial and refuse to adapt, the more entrenched in this mirage of normal we become. The mirage is killing and disabling people by the millions.

We need to start adapting. As David Lynch, who passed away recently after spending the last year of his life in isolation trying to avoid COVID, famously said, “Fix your hearts or die.” We have to fix our hearts. We have to start caring about one another and putting the lives of the most vulnerable at the forefront.

Let’s make a pact to adapt. Let’s start caring about one another again. Let’s start in health-care settings. At the end of the day, any health-care worker who won’t mask for their patients is abdicating their responsibility to “do no harm.”

Patients have the right to expect they will be protected in a health-care setting. Can we prevent 100 per cent of hospital-acquired COVID infections? Maybe not. But we have a duty to try.

For patients: Wear a mask and make it the best one you can find. Get your boosters. Avoid high-risk activities. Support organizations who are doing the work that public health should have been doing the last five years.

Every person who becomes more disabled or dies because of unsafe medical care represents a preventable loss. Every person who is misdiagnosed or goes undiagnosed because they were labelled as having “COVID anxiety” instead of given the help they need is a tragedy.

Tinu-Aboyami-Paul, a disability and COVID-cautious advocate died in September. Tinu had Long COVID and cancer and frequently shared her struggles to get health-care workers to mask during her chemo treatments. She said, “Those of us at high risk aren’t abstract people you’ve never met. We’re people you know and love, and we might die because you won’t wear a mask.”

She fought tirelessly for her own safety and the safety of all vulnerable patients, and she deserved to be protected.

We need to do better. We know how to do better. We can save so many lives and preserve the dignity of patients in the process.

If you’re working in health care, please wear a mask. Ideally a respirator. If you see a patient masking, put one on yourself. Don’t ask them if they “want you to.” Don’t tell them they can remove their mask. Don’t question why they’re trying to protect themselves.

To hospital administrators and those in government and public health, upgrade the air quality in hospitals. Provide free respirators to staff and patients. Start educating the public on the fact that COVID is still here, still deadly and still airborne.

If people understood how to protect themselves and why they should avoid repeat infections, I’m confident more people would make the effort. But they need to be informed. Let’s start there. Let’s start in health-care settings as that’s where people should have the best understanding of a viral threat. Let’s lead by example and start reducing infections. Let’s save lives.